Yocoy: Mobile Multilingual Technologies for Overcoming Communication Barriers

Abstract

The coexistence of Western and Eastern languages and cultures poses a true challenge for global mobility and communication in business and personal life. In this paper, we will describe mobile software applications that are built on top of multilingual and crosslingual technologies for overcoming language barriers, e.g., between English and Chinese, or German and Chinese. The mobile applications are interactive language guides, culture guides and country guides. They support automatic translation and dialogues between people and link the language part with information needed in a specific situation. Furthermore, users can integrate pictures into their phrases for extending the descriptive capabilities of the dialogue component. Semantic search facilitates access to words, phrases and information content.